Wissahickon Boys Club Recognized as Historic Landmark

Mary Francis Hunter, Wissahickon Boys Club advisory council president, speaks to an assembled crowd of officials and current and former boys club members at the dedication ceremony for a new historical marker on June 15. Also on hand were 8th District Councilwoman and club alum Donna Reed Miller, local ward leader Greg Paulmier and State Rep. Rosita Youngblood, who were instrumental in getting the marker approved. Germantown resident Hal Sawyer did the historical research behind the marker. (Photos by James Sturdivant)

by AMY BRISSON

What do comedian Bill Cosby, Herbert Adderley (a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame) and Barbara Harris, the first woman ordained as an Episcopalian bishop, have in common? They are all alumni of the Wissahickon Boys & Girls Club, which was recognized last Wednesday as a Philadelphia historic landmark.

The Wissahickon club was the first in the country to be established for African-Americans. It was founded just after the Civil War as the Pulaskitown Free Kindergarten, and served the sons of freed slaves and black domestic workers employed in the homes of wealthy Germantown residents. The club joined the Boys Club Federation in 1906, which later become the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

The unveiling of the Historic Landmark plaque was a very important event for the community, according to Mary Francis Hunter, advisory council president and alum of the club.

“The club is something that has been so vital to the black community in Philadelphia,” said Hunter in a phone interview, “[with the unveiling] it has finally been recognized and made permanent.”

The recognition of the club’s historical significance is also an opportunity to teach that history to current young members, said Hunter. The story of the now integrated athletic and community center is a reminder of the history of racial segregation in America, the impact of Brown v. the Board of Education on local institutions, and the ability of communities to produce something positive and long-lasting despite many obstacles.

From the beginning, the club’s aims were to engage young people by involving them in sports, offering job skills training and giving academic support. Today, the club offers a range of activities that include sports, arts, health and science courses, and computer skills training.

For Tony Kippen, an alum with a lifelong involvement to the club, the Boys & Girls Club was important because it “impacted most blacks in the [Germantown] area, and it gave direction and structure to youngsters’ lives.”

Kippen remembers times she spent playing in the club pool (built in 1924), which they called “The Bathtub,” and paying nickels to watch movies there in the evening. She added that, “without a doubt it had a positive impact on the community … it was a wonderful haven and oasis.”

Not only does the club benefit children, but it provides a way to connect across generations. At a reunion group for new and old members, Hunter said, she meets with families who have been involved with the club for as long as five generations. The group gives her an opportunity to spend time with children whose great grandparents she met when she joined in 1944.

In a speech at the plaque unveiling ceremony outside the club’s building on West Coulter Street, alum and advisory council member Greg Paulmier said that he still felt as connected to the club as he did when he was a child.

“I think for today that this is a celebration of our great community. A celebration of each one of our children, and each one of us, and what we have, and what we offer to each other. So for me, it’s about much more than this marker,” said Paulmier.

Eighth District Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, another alum, spoke of the club as a “home away from home.”

“They motivated a lot of us as young people to stay in school, continue our education, and go as far as you can go and be whatever it is that you wanted to be,” she told the audience of club staff, officials and members going back as far as the 1920s.

There may be much more in store for the Boys & Girls Club in the future as well: First Lady Laura Bush’s visit to the Germantown branch of the club in February could signal increased support from the government for the clubs nationally. On her visit, Bush mentioned a proposed $150 million to help children in low-income neighborhoods, which will hopefully be directed in part to the clubs around Philadelphia.